It had been 5 years since Firestrand, Canus, Willow, and Maccieveli had moved out of the foster home.
Firestrand was practicing his fire manipulation skills one day in Ponyville park, when Maccieveli came up to him. "Hey, Mac," he said friendishly, "What're you doing here?" he asked without any sort of suspision or malice.
"Oh, I just needed to get away from Canus for a day. You know, she's been taking this really seriously. I don't know what to do."
"ah, that's easy." said Firestrand, "Break up with her."
"What?!" asked Maccieveli in deisgust. He and Canus had been dating for almost eight years, now, and Mac wasn't nearly ready to end it.
"You know. Things like these never end up really lasting, so why not save yourself the heartbreak, and just end it now." Firestrand said, summoning a fireball out of thin air, and hurtling it into the river.
Maccieveli thought over Firestrand's words, and said, "I dunno, 'Strand. We've been dating for years, and I think that we are the only ones for each other. Like you keep saying about you and Willow."
Mac knew he had struck a nerve, when instead of a fireball, the maroon pony in front of him blasted a stream of red hot flames into the air. Firestrand quickly calmed himself, and said, "Me and Willow are the only ones for each other. If we weren't, she would have chosen a more suiting boyfriend by now. What you and Canus have, it's..." Firestrand held back the urge to say something he would regret, and instead said, "It's been going on for a long time. You and I both know that your relationship has lost almost all of its meaning since a few years ago, but me and Willow are just getting started." he shot a machine gun of fireballs into the river, and a familiar voice came from behind them.
"Well, there's only one pony I know who could've done that. Whelp." the voice belonged to Basalt, the old school bully, now only a few years older than him. Firestrand turned, and saw that Basalt had recovered from the second degree burns he had put him through. He pushed Mac aside, and walked his way upto Firestrand. Then, he looked across the park. Firestrand followed his gaze, and for the first time, saw Willow there, watching his demonstration from about forty or so yards away. "She's a pretty one, 'Strand. It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to her."
"Something already did happen to her. And it ended with you down in the burn ward." Firestreak threatened. "Don't try something like that again, or you might not make it there in time." he began to glow his horn, and fire once again erupted from it and into the river in a scorching line. He did this to prove his threatening point to Basalt, who instead just shoved him forward.
"I may have been dumb enough to fall for your torch-juggling, but this time, I'm not making the same mistake" He ce again shoved him, and kept this up until Firestrand was inches from the river. From time to time, the maroon stallion would push back, but for the most part,Basalt had Firestrand under his control.
Willow watched on, and one shove from the river, she shouted, "STOP!" and she galloped to Firestrand's side. But before she could get there, Basalt shoved Firestrand once more, causing him to lose his footing, and plummet into the river.
Firestrand was soaked through, and angry as ever. But what really caused him to snap was when Basalt turned to the newly came Willow, and pushed her in, too. The two secret crushes sat side by side in the water, their manes stuck to their heads. Firestrand's eyes embodied his rage as they started to glow bright red. His horn shot sparks as his anger welled up inside, almost ready to break loose. And finally, he shouted four words: " BY FIRE BE PURGED!!!" his horn erupted with not fire, but magma, which literally melted the skin off Basalt's bones, leaving him a charred skeleton.
Firestrand stood from the river, and found that he had actually killed a pony. Not maimed, or burned, actually murdered. He could almost not even perceive the consequences that would come with this, and so he resolved to throw Basalt's carried skeleton into the river. His friends both stared at him, mouths agape, and he said, "We can't tell anypony about this."
His friends nodded with him, and that was the end of it. Everypony walked down the street back to their shared home: the Ponyville hotel. On their way there, there was no talk, only the awkward walking of three ponies with guilty consciouses. They were all worried somepony might get suspisciouss, but they kept walking.
When they got to Firestrand and Maccieveli's room, Willlow went into the room across the hall, to Canus. Firestrand sat at the table, along with Mac. out of his nervous face, a smile started twitching. Firestrand could hardly stand that he was happy, and spoke up, "Why are you happy? We - I - just killed a pony, I could get banished, thrown into prison! And you're happy about it?" he asked a little to aggresively.
Mac lost his smile, and replied, "Oh, sorry, 'Strand. I was just thinking about how our lives are finally free from Basalt. It's wonderful. And no witesses, no family to look for him, I think that there's no danger of anypony finding out it was us, much less even finding his skeleton."
Mac raised a good point: there wasn't even any convictive evidence that they did it. But he couldn't let something like homicide slip through him without it taking a bit of guilt with it. "Yeah, I guess," he began, "but... I can't just shrug this off like it's no big deal, because it is a big deal. I killed a pony." Firestrand could hardly bare more words, so he got up, went to the sink, and got himself a drink in an ordinary glass. He filled it to the brim with water, and chugged the entire thing.
"Wow," said Mac, "and here I was thinking you've had your fill of water for today." despite his friend's comment, Firestrand kept drinking. When the glass was empty, his still faintly glowing red eyes returned to their natural state, and his blazing hair lost a majority of its glow. He placed the glass on the counter, walked over to, and opened the window looking into the everfree forest from their 3rd floor room, and fired fireball after fireball into it.
after about five minutes of this, Firestreak closed the window, and told Mac, "It's been quite the day. I'm gonna hit the hay." He walked into his bedroom, closed the door, and as fa as Maccieveli knew, went to sleep. Just after this, there was a knock from the door.
Mac looked through the peephole, and was happy to see Canus and Willow there. Even though he originally wanted a day away from Canus, he really needed to talk with someone who had no chance of incinerating him if he got on his nerves. So he opened the door, and let the other two in. He sat on the sofa this time, as the table only had two chairs. Naturally, Canus sat next to him, and Willow got the armchair. "So," he asked Willow, "quite a day, right?"
Willow smiled as she gave a silent laugh, and said, "Could've been better." she looked to Canus, who was desperately confused.
"What did you all do today?" she asked. After Maccieveli explained the whole situation, much as it appeared up there, she continued, "So, wait. You killed Basalt?"
"well, more specifically, Firestreak did, but we're all the witnesses." willow replied.
"And we've devoted ourselves to a wall of silence. Nopony saysanything, and we'll be alright." Mac added.
Willow was looking out the window when she said, "Oh, no." and ducked behind her chair.
"What is it?" asked Canus.
"The police are here. and they've got Basalt's skeleton. I don't think we're 'alright' now, Mac."